Deep Economy: Views and Practices - Essay Example

The major question that surrounds McKibben’s Deep Economy is the fight between quality and quantity. Which is more acceptable ‘more’ or ‘better’? Which is better for the economy in the longer run and what will remain valid for a long time? “More” and “Better” no longer go together. McKibben is against unfettered growth and does not believe in it since he claims that such a growth is neither sustainable nor it is realistic. Such a rapid alteration of the economic growth took place in the year 1712, with the invention of the steam engine and also the taking place of the Industrial Revolution.

He also focuses on the excessive Global Industrial Agriculture, which is about the local farmers who are claimed to be endangered. He then lists the entire range of food based problems and sabotaged food supplies that we are currently facing and this is the reason why we must focus more on satisfaction and happiness rather than merely growing. McKibben is also focusing on the term called ‘Hyper individualism’ which is a very modern day western concept which focuses on the social failure of the ecology, politics as well as morals.

McKibben’s Deep Economy has basically provided a groundwork for the ‘boomerang effect’ economy that we live in. . In simple ways, he is making the problem of globalization really local and making it our problem and not the problem of the country, continent or the world. For example, the issue that he has addressed in the 2nd chapter about ‘eating locally produced food’, after all, it’s more than just eating locally produced food, though, it’s small local farms, which are more labor-intensive but actually outproduce large farms on a per-acre basis.

Small farms fail because at current prices, it makes sense to substitute oil for people; energy and land are relatively cheap, people are expensive. He also discusses at length Cuba’s sudden, and involuntary, encounter with "peak oil" -- after the collapse of Soviet communism, and with a U. S. trade embargo, their oil imports essentially disappeared (Tannenbaum, Why Growth Is Bad, Gardens Good and Cuba Key to Oil-Free Future. bloomberg.com). The whole country went onto a more vegetarian, less industrial-scale diet, with urban gardens and involuntarily organic agriculture.

Furthermore, the book discusses the importance of having communities, which is the central claim of the writer, since periodically the world too relies on what is communal rather than that which is economical or political. Our society is saturated with hyper-individualism, and we need more emphasis on the community rather than the individual. He talks about community radio, NPR, local transportation, Curitiba and Portland, cohousing and Vermont Family Forests, local currency and town meetings.

By concentrating on the local, we develop the connections we will need in a resource-short world. This is one of McKibben’s strong points -- it is where I tend to side with McKibben over against the animal rights organizations. Here is the nub